Let's Go Bother Snape. Bother Bother Bother!

www.troyanthonydavis.org

Please take a moment in the next 6 hours to send an email, a fax, or a phone call to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles.  The execution of a probably innocent man cannot be allowed to happen.

Greetings once again from Bassett 308, current air temperature 84 degrees.  We're improving slowly but surely.

I am writing this LJ entry in celebration of three facts:  1) My homework load was sliced in half this week when I learned that my Italian prof exempted me from the rewrite of our first paper, 2) The Trilogy of Life is being re-released in box-set form from Criterion later this year - first Salo and now this, is it my birthday already? and 3) I have not yet given in to the intense peer pressure to get a Facebook, and I therefore have time to post on LJ.

In spite of the overwhelming proportion of jocks, my insanely hot dorm room, and the astonishing unreliability of the C-3 bus schedule, I am in one of the most amazing places in the world.  I love it so much here.  Every day I wake up and realize how incredibly fortunate I am to be at Duke.  I look forward to going to class.  I spend half my free time in some library or another.  As sick as this sounds, I don't mind doing my homework, because most of it is interesting.  I don't have to take calculus.  There's a yarn shop two blocks away.

My professors are, for the most part, awesome.  My Italian and Middle Ages history profs in particular are enthusiastic, and engaging.  I only have one class, a lecture, with more than 15 people in it.

For my Medieval/Renaissance focus group, I am studying medieval history and English Renaissance music.  I get to read medieval theatre whenever I want.  That may not sound like the pinnacle of awesome to you, but it is to me.

I really want to do a major in MedRen, but at the same time, I want to study a broader scope of history AND theatre, so I'm thinking of designing my own theatre history major.  Good stuff if I want to even consider going into dramaturgy.

I have amazing friends.  Many, many friendly acquaintances, and a few people whom I have known for a few weeks, but who I feel like i have known for years.  They won't read this because they don't get on LJ, but still and all: I love you guys.  You know who you are.

I talk to Corwyn a lot, and we're probably going to get together for a weekend soon.  I miss him, sometimes painfully, but it's an "I know you're in the right place for you, but I wish you could share more of this with me" miss as opposed to an "OMG I can't function normally without my boyfriend" miss.  In some ways, I think we're closer because I'm in college now.  All of the considerate people who felt the need to add to the general happiness of the world by telling me that it wasn't going to last after one of us went to college will kindly shut up now.

I went to my first frat party the other night.  To say that it was boring as shit would be a grave insult to shit.  It consisted of people standing around and drinking, and standing around and drinking some more.  So my friends and I left and went to see the improv troupe do play-by-play commentary on The Remade Wicker Man, which was hilarious.

I'm in an a cappella group called Kol Kachol.  We do pop/rock and Jewish music.  Keep an eye out for us on YouTube.

There are adorable bunnies in the yard.

And now I need to go eat before the cafeteria gets really crowded.

Catch y'all later.

-If you name-drop Fellini, Benigni, or Pasolini in Italian class, your professor will love you forever.

-The opposite is true if you name-drop Fulci, Deodato, or Jacopetti.

-Especially Jacopetti.

-All Italian women have the same hairstyle: roughly shoulder-length and really curly at the ends.

-Italians have more sex than Americans.

-If it wears pinstripes, it's probably in the mob.

-Dark glasses and ugly ties are the true marks of a rebel.

-The way to a woman's heart is to trip in front of her.

-The way to a man's heart is to be engaged to someone else.

-Producing an English dub of an Italian film should be punishable by, at minimum, death.

-When looked at from the right angle, everything is funny.

***

On a totally unrelated note, I love it here so much.  I am in the right place.

Now I need to go to a party in the MedRen Building.

Catch y'all later.

Greetings from Bassett 308, East Campus, Dule University.  Mandy and the chiggers send their love.

Mandy and the Chiggers would be a good name for a rock band.

The chiggers, in case you were wondering, are unwelcome guests from Lake Barkley, KY.  I think they're actually all gone by now, but they have left, as tokens of their love for my liquefied skin, about 750,000 insanely itchy small red bumps, which will hopefully be gone in a few days.  For the time being, I am taking baths in hydrocortisone cream and trying not to scratch, which is easier said than done.

Other than that, Duke is...well, it's Duke.  Most of the people I have met have been friendly and outgoing, if a little on the preppy side.  In other words, about what I expected.  The professors I have met so far, namely my faculty advisor and the English professor who runs the unitarian student group, are really cool.  I went to my advisor's study to be advised, and the first thing I see is The Poetry of Pier Paolo Pasolini.  Hell yeah.

Maybe this makes me a dork, but I think I'm ready for orientation to be over and classes to start.  I can only deal with cornball get-to-know-each-other activities for so long.

My roommate's name is Lauren.  She's from San Diego, and she's in the engineering school.  We get along pretty well.

Current air temperature: 86 degrees.  Fortunately we have three fans blowing.  I live in the dorm with the freshman basketball players, and guess what they have that I don't?  Correct: window AC.

Speaking of which, does anyone know why they can't call us "freshmen" anymore?  Did somebody decide it wasn't PC, or it's damaging to self-esteem, or something like that?  Because they keep calling us "first-years," which makes me feel like 1) a little kid, and 2) a Hogwarts student.

To those of you to whom I was unable to say a real goodbye, I am very sorry.  It was not my intent to slight you, that's just the way my hectic final weekend, complete with last-minute family vacation, worked out.  I do not love you any less than the people I was able to see.  We shall hang when I return, which won't be in too long, no?

Corwyn has been extremely supportive.  I'm happy.  I was worried he might take it a lot harder than he did when I left, but I guess we're pretty used to this long-distance thing.

I'm supposed to have lunch with my Focus group in about an hour.  In the meantime, I think I'll go check out the poster sale downstairs.

Good luck in all of your various endeavors, and may you never be attacked by chiggers.

Catch y'all later!

(WARNING: EXTREME VENTING TO FOLLOW)

...than people who take themselves too seriously.

Dear Hurstbourne Parkway Cold Stone Creamery crew,

Some of you take yourselves WAYYYYYYY too seriously.

You are ice cream sellers, not nuclear physicists.  Our job is actually very easy.  The vast majority of the customers don't actually give a shit whether their ice cream is in a perfect spherical shape when you put it in the bowl or whether you gave them five strawberries instead of four or vice versa.  So please stop yelling at me for really stupid, petty little things.

And wash your own damn dishes.

You know who you are, and it doesn't really matter, because I doubt any of you will read this.

That is all.

(To those of you to whom this does not apply, if you happen to find this, please disregard.  I love you.)

Hugs and kisses,
your coworker for not very much longer, thank God.

***

Okay, I feel better now.

In better news, my stepnephew was born on Sunday.  He looks like a three-day-old baby, meaning that he is quite adorable.

Talk soon.

In the interest of not suffocating everyone, this will be a three-part entry.

 

I would like to stress, before you click on the cut, that I had an AMAZING time in Italy.  I want to go back as soon as I can.  If it seems like I am placing an emphasis on the negatives of the trip, that’s because I think you will find those more amusing.  Happy reading.

Part II (Days 3-6) coming soon!

Catch y'all later.

I will be writing a LONG-ASS post about my trip to Italy soon.  This is everything else that is going on in my life.

1) I am deciding between NYU and Duke.  Any nonbiased input will be appreciated.

2) Corwyn and I celebrated three years.  I love you, dear.

3) Everyone should go volunteer at the Kentucky for Obama and Greg Fischer for Senate headquarters.

4) I want a Fiat 500.

Be expecting the Italy update!

Catch y'all later.

One or two surprises here, but nothing earth shattering.  You can take the quiz here.

1.  Secular Humanism (100%) 2.  Unitarian Universalism (98%) 3.  Theravada Buddhism (92%) 4.  Liberal Quakers (90%) 5.  Nontheist (82%) 6.  Neo-Pagan (81%) 7.  Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (79%) 8.  Orthodox Quaker (72%) 9.  Taoism (71%) 10.  Mahayana Buddhism (69%) 11.  Reform Judaism (69%) 12.  New Age (67%) 13.  Bahá'í Faith (61%) 14.  Jainism (57%) 15.  Orthodox Judaism (53%) 16.  Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (48%) 17.  Islam (45%) 18.  Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (42%) 19.  Scientology (42%) 20.  New Thought (42%) 21.  Sikhism (42%) 22.  Seventh Day Adventist (41%) 23.  Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (38%) 24.  Hinduism (27%) 25.  Eastern Orthodox (18%) 26.  Roman Catholic (18%) 27.  Jehovah's Witness (15%)

 

I will be.

I can't decide whether this is hilarious or mortifying.

Keep in mind, as I tell this story, that we are dealing with my 50-year-old father, who (sorry, Dad) has not passed for 17-20 in quite a while.

So, I spent most of my break with my 50-year-old father (which was quite nice - I'll get to that when I'm awake), and I flew back earlier today, and he came into the airport with me, went to the checkpoint with me, gave me a goodbye hug, etc. etc.  The kind of stuff you would expect from your father (age 50) whom you see about 20 days every year.

As my 50-year-old father is walking away from the checkpoint, the guy behind me in line taps me on the shoulder.  Nice, professional-looking black guy.  So I smile expectantly at him in my charming little Mandy way, and he says, verbatim:

"He parked and everything just to walk you into the airport?  That's so romantic!"

...

Did I mention that we're talking about my 50-year-old father?

1) WTF?
2) WTF?
3) Does my dad look like Fred Thompson to anybody?
4) Do I really look that old? (Sorry, Dad!)
5) WTF????

...

Catch y'all later.

Chemistry - 4
US History - 5
English Lang & Comp - 5

About what I was praying for.

And now, a few words of encouragement to any of my Manual sophomore/junior friends who have opted to take AP chem as a first-year chem class next year and will be spending their entire years studying for Dr. DaRif's tests:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA YOU HAVE TO TAKE DR. DARIF'S TESTS AND I DON'T NEENER NEENER NEENER.

I will miss Doc D, though :'(

Catch y'all later!

...with the most bizarre video. Sweet Jesus.

DROP WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING AND GO SEE SICKO RIGHT THIS MINUTE.

I have seen four of Michael Moore's films, and this was, by leaps and bounds, the best of them.

Prepare to be disgusted, shocked, and inspired.

Catch y'all later.

I'm in Hamlet!

I'm Guildenstern.

But I'm not dead.

Everyone has to come see me.

Yes.

AND THE SCHOOL YEAR IS OVER THANK GOD ALMIGHTY I'M FREE AT LAST OH SHIT I'M A SENIOR THERE GOES MY LIFE AAAAAAHHHHHHH OH HELL LET'S JUST ENJOY IT.

Thank you :)

Catch y'all later!

(I'll write a real post soon)

ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK? EPISODE FEATURING KAYLEE!!!

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=are+you+afraid+of+the+dark+unfinished+painting

Catch y'all later.

Actually, it's been quite nice, starting with my long Corwyn/Nick/Jake weekend.

We did not, unfortunately, make it to Baxter's midnight Shining, I think thanks to poor management by Baxter.  Come on.  They had to KNOW that one theater was not going to be sufficient!  This is not Serenity or Blue Velvet or some other flick with a small cult surrounding it.  This is the fucking Shining, which has not only a very large cult surrounding it, but a much smaller cult within whose members have seen it a minimum of 30 times and who would have hacked down the door with an axe to get in if they could guarantee not getting arrested.  I know these people; I'm one of them.  I mean, Jesus, I actually think Shelley Duvall is attractive!  That's how obsessed I am!  At any rate, since I did not have an axe, Corwyn, Jake, Nick and I went back to my place, and Nick and Corwyn and I watched my copy of the movie, and we ate my homemade soda bread, and Jake slept on my stepbrother's bed.

Next day, Corwyn and I went to see Twelve Angry Men at the Palace and that was absolutely wonderful.  John-Boy Walton was Juror #8.  Of course, the good guy would be young and attractive and have a romantic-lead-style voice.  On the whole, it was an absolutely beautiful weekend, and I wish it could have gone on longer.

This week, I realized that I am slowly going to go nuts.  I have two plays to direct, another to assistant direct, three AP tests to study for, lines to memorize, rehearsals to attend, and a speech team to hold together.

Everything's going fabulous!

And I went swimming today.  I like to swim.

Catch y'all later!

I GOT A NEW COMPUTER!  FINALLY!  YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY!

First of all, new icon to show off.  I wanted it to say "I Eat Mary Sues," but I couldn't get it to fit in readable font.  Oh well.  I call him Pedro.  I have no fucking clue what his real name is, or if he, in fact, has one that I can pronounce.

Secondly, Second Semester Bloos.

Well, my teachers have mostly given up on us learning anything for the rest of the year.  The good ones have gotten better, the bad ones have gotten worse, and the adorable little drama teachers have stayed about the same.

SANDERS: "O Mandy, I totally lyk <3<3<3 ur essays lolz!!1!  Now let's talk about The Scarlet Letter.  OMG Nathaniel Hawthorne!!! *swoonz*"
TAYLOR: "Republicans suck.  Read the next chapter."
ALLISON: *goes to sleep*
KLEIER: "I'm too tired to make you do anything, so go work on your scenes or talk about Mr. Bradford's lovers, whichever you prefer."
DARIF: "Aww, quit whining, this is the easiest test you'll take all year!" *fails everyone*
SOWERS: "Hey, guess what?  I got some NOTES for y'all to take, just like I have EVERY OTHER DAY THIS YEAR!  Isn't this FUN?"
BENEDICT: "Let's rechoreograph the Enchantment dance for the 1,495,039,485,000,000th time!"

I'm being a little hard.  Taylor, DaRif, and Allison are wonderful.  But musical theater is REALLY beginning to suck.  I HATE DANCING.  GRRRRR.

On a much happier note:

I'm going to see The Shining this Saturday.
With Jake, Nick, and Corwyn, in case any of the former two were not previously aware.
At midnight.
On the big screen.
The Shining.
THE SHINING.
STANLEY KUBRICK'S THE SHINING.
*orgasm* I'm so very very excited.  *geeks out*

Catch y'all later!

Oh dear friends!  What cause for celebration we have!  Everything that went wrong this year has been recitfied by the fact that

DAVE BARRY'S BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes!  He writes again!  My life has recovered its meaning!

Meanwhile, back on planet earth...

I had a pretty good break.  Nothing breathtakingly special, but nice all around.  Would have been nicer if I could have eliminated some of the roughly 10 years I spent in airports (not airPLANES, airPORTS).  Started work on a play about strippers.  Played with some dogs.  Made some bourbon balls.  Almost brought about Corwyn's death attempting to do an illegal U-ey on Poplar Level.  Walked around Cave Hill Cemetery.  Went to a New Years Eve party and left as the only sober human being within ten miles.  Had to read Rich People Amusing Themselves A Doll House for theater.  Did not want to go back to school.  Oh well.

Nick and Jake: We're going to go to the midnight Shining on the 13th, so if you have already made plans, I am going to be forced to disembowel you.  Just kidding.  Mostly.  Be there.

*squee* I have a DVD camera, complete with tripod, a stuffed penguin, and (courtesy of the boyfriend) a new manatee!  To those of you I have not seen, I will give you your goodies soon.

Also, in an extreme moment of weakness, bought several horror movie soundtracks.  The Cannibal Holocaust soundtrack is absolutely beautiful, as is everything Ortolani has ever done, but most of the others are kind of...well, silly.  Apparently, people who score scary movies think that the scariest sounds in the world are drums and loud bangs, so most of the music sounds kind of like this:

BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!  BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!  BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!! *CRASH* (repeat 1 billion times).

Gotta do some homework.  Catch y'all later!

Non-GSA friends: You may ignore this entry - or you can take the test, but your score won't be very high. This is the temporary home of the GSA Purity Test until I find a better one for it.

( GSA PURITY TEST )

Catch y'all later!